Monday, 2 August 2010

State Sponsored Psychopaths

I am by no means a psychologist and find it difficult at times to understand myself never mind others. What I have realised about myself in my time in 'exile' is that I have significantly slack morals compared to my peers. Morals are set at personal a level. One person may see abortion as immoral and wrong another person may think the opposite. Both people possess morals but are on a different level of the scale. A person on my 'moral scale' that registers themselves at 10/10 would mourn if they stood on a spider. A person with 0/10 would be by definition a psychopath. A person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse.

There is a theory that due to the horrific events experienced by people from Northern Ireland during the Troubles that morals are slightly twisted. This again is not to say that people from Northern Ireland are lacking morals but many would have read the newspapers on a Monday morning and thought thank goodness I was not blown up. There would of course be empathy for those killed during the Troubles who were perceived as 'innocent' (not linked to armed organisations) but death was a common occurrence and people became hardened to it.

What I am interested in however is the seemingly normal people who would ruthlessly murder innocent people. The killings of innocent civilians by men using the disguise of loyalism is shocking and often incomprehensible. Often the reason's given by these men were that the person murdered was a Republican sympathiser but the reality is that these killers were only interested in blood. If an innocent Protestant was mistakenly murdered these men would have shown no real remorse. A statement may be released by their organisation apologising but this would not be a sincere apology from the killer. These men were well known to the security forces and their ability to kill was used as a weapon against state targets. They were fearless and just about untouchable.

These men were unique they thrived off power and killing but they were protected. They were an asset to the state and would never be brought to justice. Unlike other terrorists it is unlikely they believed so strongly in their cause as many enjoyed lavish lifestyles and hid their true nature behind the cloak of the loyalist cause. Of course it is recognised that terrorists are not all psychopaths and very few actually possess the abilities to function as a group within a terrorist organisation. However it seems that these men were able to operate as 'terrorists' due to the influence of the security forces and the relatively early stage at which they entered loyalist gangs. They joined as young men in their teens and quickly gained respect through their newly realised abilities. They lived the life of a psychopath but in a most peculiar setting in which their psychopathic tendencies could be fully unleashed. With their old age and the end of the Troubles many have begun to speak about their past but what is truly chilling is even after all this time the lack of remorse shown. Normally psychopaths start to feel remorse in their 50s but this is not the case with these men.

The creation of these monsters by the state served no good. The men were and still are by some seen as defenders of loyalism. This admiration of violent psychopaths by some in society I find the most worrying.